The present invention relates to Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, improving operation of these systems, and providing for improvements in the methods, and/or algorithms used in the management of energy used by these HVAC systems.
In the HVAC industry there is potential for sales of HVAC equipment with specialized or optimized control networks that incorporate various algorithms and/or mechanisms intended to improve energy efficiency during operation of the HVAC. In the lodging industry there is great potential for energy savings because guests in a hotel or motel are typically not the ones that are directly footing the bill for heating or cooling. HVAC vendors may propose various HVAC control systems or energy management systems for offer to the lodging industry, and these systems may be offered with the intention of improving comfort and/or reducing costs of operations of the HVAC system, or in general to reduce utility costs. However, directly relating a claim of savings in operation of a system to an actual achievable savings is difficult, in particular because energy usage for HVAC may vary widely depending on weather conditions, levels of occupancy, and many other factors. Therefore it is difficult to measure or even estimate energy savings achievable by a particular system, algorithm or mechanism. This makes it difficult to optimize algorithms or mechanisms incorporated within the system in order to maximize savings or other improvements, and it also makes it difficult to market or sell such systems to the lodging industry. Even though the system may indeed offer improvements, it is difficult to convincingly demonstrate the savings. It is even more difficult to demonstrate or measure the savings of specific features of energy management control in an installed system. It is also difficult to illustrate savings in a simple manner easily understood by people that are not experts or who do not have the time to study reports and/or details in an energy management report.